


it's never too late to learn

by thelordofshrimp



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Broken Bones, Crushes, Cute, Fluff, For Science!, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace are Cute, One Shot, i am choosing to ignore trials of apollo, medicine/doctors, solangelo, travis is barely in this sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelordofshrimp/pseuds/thelordofshrimp
Summary: Will's got a crazy idea and Nico's just along for the ride
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace
Kudos: 17





	it's never too late to learn

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to ElurosAthena- my editor, advisor, and general go-to cool person
> 
> How fitting that i finish + post this on Nico's birthday
> 
> All my indents got deleted, I am still figuring that out, apologies
> 
> Enjoy!

"What exactly are your powers?"

"Huh?" Nico looked up from the book he'd been reading. As it turned out, being dropped into the twenty-first century with less than a middle school education had left Nico's knowledge of history shaky at best. With a little help from the Athena cabin, he'd been furiously reading his way from Mussolini to Miley Cyrus and beyond. 

At that moment, he'd been learning about the Space Race, but Will's question broke both the silence and his concentration. 

"What are your powers?" Will repeated, leaning back against the wall. "You're the only son of Hades I know-actually the only one there is-and I have no idea what you can do."

"Uh- well, I mean I can shadow travel, but you know that, and I can summon Jules-Albert and any other skeletons that are nearby, and I can talk to ghosts if I make the right sacrifices-"

"What kind of skeletons?" Will interjected, moving to sit across from Nico on the gurney. 

"Human, animal, whatever. If there's a bone in the ground, I can summon it." Nico wasn't sure he liked the look on Will's face. It was a little too 'mad scientist' for his taste. "But I don't like to."

Will's face fell a little. "Why not? It seems really useful."

"I-I'm not sure." Nico looked down at his hands. "Aside from shadow traveling, all of my powers really only hurt people. None of them are good anywhere but the battlefield." He looked up at Will, expecting scorn or dismissal, but was met with a look of compassion so strong he could almost feel the walls around his heart begin to crumble. "Not like yours."

"Everyone helps people in their own way, powers or no. You help people, even if it's not directly." 

Nico felt like his lungs had shrunk. Will had watched him let Octavian die, had seen him do countless terrible things, and still somehow believed he could help people? Something must have come loose in his head. 

"I wish I had your powers," Nico muttered. "Then I could directly help people."

Something flashed in Will's eyes, and the mad scientist look was back. "Hold that thought. Come with me."

"Where are we-" Nico started, but Will was already out of the door. Apprehensive but curious, Nico followed. 

_To Hades with Will Solace and his long legs._ Nico could barely keep up as Will practically tore across camp, heading for the edge of the woods. After what felt like a mile but was unfortunately more like a hundred feet, they came to a stop in a small clearing that was visible from the rest of camp, but only if you squinted. 

"What-" Nico gasped "-are we here for?"

"I have an idea. Catch your breath." Will set down a plastic baggie full of ambrosia, and Nico's confusion only deepened. 

Once Nico had caught his breath and finished feeling embarrassed that he even had to catch his breath, Will turned to him eagerly. 

"Are there any bones in the ground around us?"

Nico had barely turned his attention to the earth before he found some. "Squirrel over there," he said, pointing. "What are we doing?"

"Fascinating." Will completely ignored the question, looking in the direction of the buried squirrel. His gaze snapped back to Nico. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes." The word was out of his mouth before he fully realized what the question was. 

"Good. Do you trust that I trust you?" Will's blue eyes were locked onto Nico's, making the whole world feel a lot smaller, as if it were closing in on the two of them. 

"You shouldn't." 

"Not the question."

Nico felt like Will was staring straight into his soul, but it didn't feel invasive, it was oddly comforting, almost intimate. 

_ Whoa. No. Not the time.  _ Nico shook his head as if he had water in his ears. "Yes, I believe that you, in all your lack of common sense, trust me."

Will rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Now will you tell me what's going on?" Nico crossed his arms, trying to come across as intimidating, which didn't really work with almost a foot in height difference between them. 

"I think I can teach you how to manipulate bones within the human body. A  _ living  _ human body."

"A-  _ what _ ?" Nico choked on air. "Why the hell would you want to do that?"

"Because it could help people. If you don't want to do it you don't have to, but please humor me just this once."

"Fine." 

"Sweet." Will grinned, and Nico immediately felt like he'd made the right decision, nerves and logic be damned. "How do you normally find bones?"

"I mean, if they're close I can just kind of tell, like that squirrel, but if they’re a little deeper I have to-" Nico awkwardly struck the air in front of him with the palm of his hand. "Like that."

"Okay, okay," Will looked much more interested than he should have after watching the world's most uncomfortable one-sided high five. He squared his shoulders and turned to face Nico head-on. "Now do that to me."

"No! Are you crazy?" Nico took a step back.  _ What in Hades' name is he thinking?  _ "I could hurt you!"

"That's what that's for," Will said, gesturing to the ambrosia baggie. "I can take a hit. You know I trust you."

If it weren't for his uncanny resemblance to his father, Nico would have sworn Will was a son of Aphrodite. His words filled Nico's head like Charmspeak, and for a second, he let himself believe them.  _ I trust you.  _

"As long as you're sure." 

Will nodded, and Nico slammed the palm of his hand into his friend's chest-

_ Whoa.  _

Nico's senses fizzled like gunpowder, spreading out from the point of impact until he could feel every bone in Will's body, from his skull and ribcage down to tiny bones in his ear Nico didn't even know people had. It felt like he was looking at a blueprint, seeing the foundations of what kept Will standing. 

It was the most exhilarating thing Nico had ever felt. 

Will gasped, and Nico yanked his hand back. 

"Will! Are you-?" he exclaimed, not sure if he wanted to reach out.

"I'm okay," Will said, shaking his hands as if they'd fallen asleep. "That was- Wow. Did you-?"

"I felt everything." The words practically leapt out of Nico's mouth, he was so excited. "I could feel all of your bones, but it wasn't like raising the dead, because I wasn't doing anything, I was just observing. It was like- like-" 

An accurate description escaped him. How could he explain how it felt to see the way someone's entire body worked? Nothing compared. 

"Like looking inside the world's most complicated machine?" Will offered.

"Yeah, like that, but way crazier." Nico paused. "How did you know it would work? How do you know what it feels like?"

Will looked like he was about to explode with excitement. "Because," he began, infecting Nico with his enthusiasm, "that's what healing feels like."

Nico's head spun, or maybe the world stopped spinning, he wasn't sure. " _ Healing?" _

Will nodded. "When I touch someone to heal them, I can feel almost everything- muscles, veins, organs- but bones are always kind of fuzzy. I still can't really explain it, but I know I can heal almost any injury that isn't life threatening, except for broken bones. I always have to rely on ambrosia for those. But you-"

Will took Nico's hands, and the world was  _ definitely  _ standing still now. "I think you can do what I can't."

Nico felt like he was going to be sick. Will freaking Solace was standing in front of him, holding his hands, beaming with what looked like pride, telling him he could heal people, and  _ holding his hands _ . This had to be a dream. 

Will let go of his hands, looking concerned. "Nico, are you alright?"

"You don't know if I can actually do anything." Nico's voice cracked, and he wanted to kick himself. "All I did was feel bones. I'm not a healer."

"I know you can do _something._ Nobody becomes a healer overnight, but the first step is being able to feel what's going on inside someone's body, and you can do that." Nico wanted to protest, but Will kept talking. "You don't have to do anything if you don't want to. I'm just saying that I can teach you. You could be a healer, if that's what you want."

Nico took a deep breath. Finally, the chance to actually help people with his powers was standing in front of him. He'd be a moron to refuse. "I want to."

Will grinned, and Nico got the feeling he'd made the right decision again, though he was pretty sure that smile would convince him no matter what he chose. "Then let's begin."

* * *

"Demigods and other assorted mystical folks, what you're about to see here might blow your mind." Will faced the camp, speaking with the confidence and inflection of a circus ringmaster. "I have made the son of Hades himself a healer."

Intrigued and incredulous murmurs rippled through the crowd. Will thanked Travis Stoll for volunteering and began to explain to the audience what the two of them had been working on for over three months. 

Nico took a deep breath, silently reminding himself that he'd done this time and time again, perfecting the skill until he could practically do it in his sleep. 

"Here, eat this." Will dropped what looked like a small candy into Travis's palm. 

Travis swallowed it and gagged. "Tastes like minotaur dung." 

"It's a painkiller, not a gumball. It's not supposed to taste good." Will rolled his eyes. "Now hold still."

Travis followed Will's instructions with the obedience of someone who clearly hadn't put together what a healing demonstration required. He was quickly enlightened, however, as Will put his fist into Travis's elbow with a sickening crack that made even Nico shudder. 

Travis's arm dangled limply at his side, his elbow at an awkward angle, but the son of Hermes looked more intrigued than pained, which meant whatever Will had given him worked. 

Will turned to Nico and smiled. "You got this."

After months of working together, Nico had almost figured out how to make his stomach stop doing backflips every time Will smiled at him. Almost. He did his best to smile back at Will, though it may have been more of a nervous grimace, and moved to stand in front of Travis, who was swinging his limp arm in circles. 

Nico caught Travis's wrist in midair and held on to it, gripped just above the elbow with his other hand. Closing his eyes, he reached out for the now-familiar feeling and concentrated on the bones between his hands. 

_ Oh, dammit.  _ If he hadn't been so focused, Nico might have winced. Will had broken Travis's arm in several places, likely on purpose.  _ I'm going to kill him.  _

Nico scrunched his face in concentration, pulling Travis's bones back together and willing them to mend, just as he'd done nearly every day with the squirrel bones in the forest, shattering them and fixing them until it came almost naturally. 

The last sliver slid into place and meshed with the rest of the bone, and Nico dropped his hands to his sides. The whole camp waited with bated breath as Travis flexed his fingers, grabbed a rock in his normal arm, threw it into the air, and-

Caught it. The campers went up in a roar, everyone running forward to see the results for themselves. Most of the people surrounded Travis, who had no problem being the center of attention, but more than a few people came to Nico, asking him how he'd done it, congratulating him, and generally overwhelming him with compliments until he had to make some shaky excuses and sneak off, headed back to his cabin for some quiet. 

"That was really good."

Nico jumped. Will had snuck up on him somehow. His voice was unusually soft. 

"Uh- thanks." Nico smiled, for real this time. "I couldn't have done it without you. You're a pretty great teacher."

Will looked at the ground before meeting Nico's eyes and-was he  _ blushing?  _ Had Nico really made the annoyingly nonchalant son of Apollo blush? 

"Thanks." Will was definitely blushing. Something about it made Nico feel both comforted and way more nervous. "You're gonna make a really good healer. You're gonna help a lot of people."

"I know," Nico said, finally believing it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, criticisms, any feedback always welcome :)


End file.
